AFS

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- E Exemption No. 11049

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION WASHINGTON, DC 20591

In the matter of the petition of

NORTH AMERICAN AIR Regulatory Docket No. FAA

- 2012

- 13 42 CHARTER, INC

.

for an exemption from § 135.324 of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations

DENIAL OF EXEMPTION

By letter dated December 10, 2012, Mr. Jonathan D. Ross, Director of Operations, North American Air Charter, Inc. ( North American ), 90 Arrival Avenue, Suite 20

, LI MacArthur Airport

– Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, petitioned the Feder al Aviation Administration (FAA) o n behal f of North American for relief fr om the guidance provided in FAA N otice 8900.197

. N otice 8900.197 was issued in an effort to identify and correc t part 135 training programs providing credit for previous training an d/or qualification received from a different certificate

holder contrary to § 135.324 and to provide guidance for POI approval of reduced training hour curricula for initial, transition, or upgrade training

. The FAA does not grant relief from guidance mat erial

. Therefore

, the request will be processed as a petition for exemption from § 135.324 of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR). The proposed exemption, if granted, would allow credit for previous aircraft specific ground and flight tra ining that a

crewmember received at a 14 CFR p art 142 training center while employed by another

certificate holder

. Part 135, S ubpart H does not permit a certificate holder to take credit for training and evaluations conducted in accordance with another certifi cate holder’s approved training program.

The petitioner requests relief from the following regulation :

Section 135.324 prescribes, in pertinent part, that

— a) Other than the certificate holder, only another certificate holder certificated under this part o r a training center certificated under part 142 of this chapter is eligible under this subpart to conduct training, testing, and checking under2 contract or other arrangement to those persons subject to the requirements of this subpart.

b) A certificate holder may contract with, or otherwise arrange to use the services of, a training center certificated under part 142 of this chapter to conduct training, testing, and checking required by this p art only if the training center

–

1) Holds applicable training specifi cations issued under part 142 of this chapter;

2) Has facilities, training equipment, and courseware meeting the applicable requirements of part 142 of this chapter;

3) Has approved curriculums, curriculum segments, and portions of curriculum segments applicab le for use in training courses required by this subpart; and

4) Has sufficient instructor and check airmen qualified under th e applicable requirements of § § 135.337 through 135.340 to provide training, testing, and checking to persons subject to the requireme nts of this subpart.

The petitioner supports its request with the following information:

North American asserts that the aircraft specific ground and flight training administered by the part 142 training center is essentially identical between certificate holders

. The petitioner

states that minor certificate holder

- specific differences are left to the individual certificate

holders to include in their basic indoctrination training.

The petitioner requests to conduct operations that allow credit for traini ng conducted by a
part 142 training center for another certificate holder within the following guidelines:

1. The petitioner would allow credit for the aircraft specific flight and ground training that takes place at one of the part 142 training centers that it has contractual arrangements with, even though the training may have taken place on behalf of

another certificate holder

.
2. The petitioner state d it is not seeking credit for the testing requirements of § 135.293(a)(1) and (4) through (8)

, but w ould condu ct its own evaluations of § 135.293 (a)(1) and (4) through (8)

. The petitioner states that evaluat ions under §§ 135.293(a)(1) and (4) through (8)

, and 135.299 would examine certificate holder specific areas. The petitioner states it w ould not use any pilot that has not been thoroughly evaluated by its own check airmen

, as described in this paragraph

.
3. The petitioner state s that each flightcrew member granted credit for aircraft specific flight and ground training received at a part 142 training center on beh alf of another

certificate holder w ould have successfully completed and been evaluated on the petitioner’s basic indoctrination training before receiving any training credit.3 4. The petitioner states the Pilot Record Improvement Act (PRIA) request to previous employers w ould contain all information necessary to perform a gap analysis of the training for which training credit is being sought. The petitioner stated it w ould not grant any equivalent training credit unless it ha d first received the information th at is supplied by a PRIA request.

The petitioner further states that granting this petition would benefit the public because “[ i ] t is a generally accepted fact that the use of flight simulator based aircraft training is an asset to flight safety ” and “tho se that engage in this training are less likely to be involved in an aircraft

accident

. ” The petitioner states that if this petition is not granted, operators would be encouraged to conduct training in aircraft on an in house basis instead of using simulat or based training at a part 142 training center , which the petitioner believes is generally regarded

to be far less effective

. In addition, t he petitioner asserts there would be a substantial economic impact if this petition is not granted due to the cost of training a pilot and the lack of availability of qualified pilots.

A summary of the petition was published in the Federal Register on June 19, 2013

. O ne comment was received in support of the petitioner’s request

.

The FAA's analysis is as follows:

T he FAA has fully considered North American ’s petition for exemption from § 135.324

, including supporting information, and finds that a grant of exemption would not provide a level of safety equivalent to that provided by the regulation and would not be in the public

interest

. The petitioner asserts that the aircraft

- specific ground and flight training administered by the part 142 training center is essentially identical between certificate holders. However , the petitioner’s proposed procedure does not sta te how it would comply with the aircraft

- specific pilot testing requirements of § 135.293(a)(2) and (3). Moreover , in accordance with § 135.323(a)(1)

, each certificate holder must establish and implement an approved training program that satisfies the req uirements of S ubpart H of part 135 and ensures that each crewmember is adequately trained to perform his or her assigned duties

. As stated in a legal interpretation of the training rules in subpart H of part 135 to Charles A. Spillner 1

, issued May 30, 201 3

, “ a common thread of part 135 training rules is that the certificate holder is responsible for ensuring that its crewmembers meet the standards for operating under that part and that its training program must be tailored to that certificate holder’s oper ations. ” Since each certificate holder has different operating specifications, procedures, methods, checklists, etc.

, which have a direct impact on the crewmember’s assigned duties, no two certificate holders will have the same training program.

1 http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/pol_adjudication/agc200/interpretations/data/ interps/2013/spillner

cas%20aviation%20

- %20(2013)%20legal%20interpretation.pdf4 Further

, in a legal interpretation of §121.402 (a parallel provision to the requirements in §135.324) issued to Francis M. DeJoseph 2 Feb ruary 28, 2013 , t he agency noted that the rulemaking , which add ed § § 121.402 and 135.324 , “ simply did not contemplate transferr ing training credits between ... certificate holders for the purposes of satisfying the training requirements of a hiring certificate holder. Rather, the issue of "crediting" training was only discussed in the rulemaking documents in the context of expand ing credit for training completed in a simulator that was traditionally required to be completed in flight. ” The FAA emphasizes that the requirements of § 135.324, as interpreted by the agency, do not preclude a certificate holder from seeking approval fr om the FAA of an additional training “curriculum (containing all required subjects and tasks) with reduced program hour requirements [ for experienced crewmembers ] based on a particular level of previously attained knowledge and

skill.” See DeJoseph interp retation.

Therefore, enabling one certificate holder to grant credit for training provided under another certificate holder’s approved training program would not provide a level of safety equal to that provided by the rule.

The petitioner asserts thi s petition is in the public interest because otherwise operators would be encouraged to conduct training in aircraft instead of using simulator based training at a
part 142 training center , which is generally considered less effective. The FAA is not

convi nced that den ying this petition will encourage certificate holders to conduct training in

aircraft instead of simulators.

The FAA’s Decision:

In consideration of the foregoing, I find that a grant of exemption would not provide an equivalent level of sa fety or be in the public interest. Therefore, pursuant to the authority

contained in 49 U.S.C. §§ 106 (f), 40113 and 44701, delegated to me by the Administrator,

the petition of North American Air Charter, Inc.

, for an exemption from 14 CFR § 135.324 is

h ereby denied.

Issued in Washington, DC, on September 2, 2014.

.

/S/ John Barbagallo Acting Deputy Director, Flight Standards Service

2 http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/pol_adjudication/agc200/interpretations/data/interps/2013/dejose ph

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- %20(2013)%20legal%20interpretation.pdf